SGA-Rising-AU
by Alia Morris
Summary: AU version of the pilot episode. What would happen if there was another member on John's team? And he saved her from the dart? And he got captured by the Wraith? first chapters are kind of boring, but bear with me and it will improve. Eventually Sheppard/OC
1. Chapter 1

I hadn't planned on this; I hadn't intended on going to another galaxy when I joined the air-force, but we don't always choose our destiny. In this case though it wasn't my destiny I couldn't control; it was my genes. Apparently I had some kind of alien-ancient gene that let me operate ancient technology.

So here inside Cheyenne Mountain; in a top secret classified ancient outpost, getting a final mission briefing from Dr. Weir and Colonel Sumner.

I looked around at the rest of the military team, feeling very uncomfortable; the only three people I knew by name were Sergeant Bates, Lieutenant Ford, and Colonel Sumner.

Then I saw him out of the corner of my eye. He was leaning against the wall, hands in pockets, looking completely bored with the proceedings. No, it couldn't be him, I was imagining it. He shifted slightly and I saw his face; I had been right, it was John Sheppard.

I had seen him last in Afghanistan, and hadn't in my wildest dreams expected to see him here. I wasn't ready to see him again; I couldn't face him. He had saved my life in Afghanistan, and what had I done when he needed me? I had ran; I had left him and he had almost died. I didn't know if I would ever be able to face him again.

What was he doing here? Sure, he was an ace pilot, but surely he didn't have the ancient gene.

I looked away and tried to concentrate on what Colonel Sumner was saying, but my mind kept drifting back to Shep-No. He was Major Sheppard, I had to remember that. Maybe he wouldn't remember me; it had been a long time ago. If he didn't remember we could start over, and maybe I could forget.

The expedition was ready, the gate would be active soon, and Colonel Sumner was seriously getting on my nerves, talking to us like we were a bunch of wayward children. I saw him stop and talk to Major Sheppard, and even though I couldn't hear what they were saying I recognized Shep's expression. To someone who didn't know him he would have looked amused but I did know him, and he looked defiant.

I fumbled with the straps of my pack to avoid staring at him.

The Scottish Doctor-what was his name-Becker? No, Beckett was arguing with a Canadian scientist somewhere to my right, and I saw Dr. Weir talking to General O'Neil in the control room. I looked back to where I had seen Major Sheppard, but he was gone, in fact I couldn't see him anywhere.

A hand dropped onto my shoulder and I knew before I turned that it was Shep. He gave me a crooked smile.

"Haven't seen you around lately, Hazel."

"I-uh-I've been busy." I shifted my weight uncomfortably and avoided meeting his eyes. "It's good to see you, Major."

His smile widened. "Since when do you call me major?"

"Since now, I guess."

"Look, Hazel, I know-" he was interrupted as the Stargate activated, and Colonel Sumner started shouting again. He scowled. "We'll talk later." He turned to go, but looked back. "It's good to see you Lieutenant Williams."

For a minute I wondered if I had offended him; then he flashed me a grin and was gone in the crowd. I scowled after him.

**A/N: Thankyou to Gollykins for pointing out that the Earth StarGate is in Cheyenne mountain and not Antarctica.**


	2. Chapter 2

"Send the MALP." Dr. Weir's voice rang out through the room, and I was pulled back from memories of Afghanistan. The MALP rolled ponderously up the ramp and vanished into the rippling wormhole. I stared after it, wondering what we would find. Would it be Atlantis and the ancients as we hoped, or another race like the Ori to contend with.

"We have MALP telemetry." the 'Gate tech sounded supremely bored with the whole proceeding.

"What is it we're looking at?" Dr. Weir sounded nervous, excited, and eager all at once. I couldn't make sense of what I was feeling. Too much had happened for me to sort through it all. Of all the places to run into Shep again this was the most unlikely. Seriously, we were about to go to another galaxy and he just happened to be here at the same time as me? What kind of laughable trick was fate playing on me?

"The radar indicates...a large room." It was the Canadian scientist; McCoy? No, McCoy was from Star Trek; McKay, Dr. Rodney McKay.

"Structurally intact?" That was Dr. Jackson's voice, but I couldn't see him.

"Environmental sensors... say there's oxygen, no measurable toxins. We have viable life support. It looks like we're not getting out of this." Dr. McKay sounded vaguely disappointed at how simple relocating to another galaxy was going to be.

General O'Neill shifted slightly and it looked to me like he was scowling, but I couldn't be sure; I could never be sure about the General, and personally, he scared the hell out of me. "Dr. Weir, you have a go."

"Let's go, people. We don't know how much power we've got. Security teams One and Two, you're up first. All other personnel will follow on our signal. Once on the other side, keep moving, clear the debarkation area. On my lead…" Colonel Sumner started shouting again, but he didn't get far, and I couldn't help but smile as Dr. Weir put him in his place.

"Hold on, Colonel. We go through together."

Sumner bristled for a moment and I thought he was going to object, but he finally nodded. " Fair enough." He stepped through the 'Gate followed by Dr. Weir and a unit of Marines. For a moment the entire expedition seemed to hold it's breath; then Sumner's voice crackled over the comm. "All clear. It looks good."

I felt the knot of tension in my stomach lessen slightly. At least Sumner and Weir hadn't been attacked yet.

"Expedition team...move out." O'Neill practically shouted at us.

The team surged forward to the 'Gate and somehow I ended up beside Sheppard and a Lieutenant named Ford. John stopped short at the 'Gate looking a little queasy. "You been off world before?" he asked me, trying to sound nonchalant. I shook my head, not trusting my voice to work.

"What about you?" he asked Ford.

"Yes, sir."

"What's it feel like?"

"Hurts like hell, Sir."

For a minute I believed him and from the look on Shep's face he did too; that is until Ford grinned like an imp and jumped through with a yell.

Shep looked at me and shrugged then we both stepped through. It didn't 'hurt like hell' but it did make me dizzy and a little disoriented as I stepped through into an enormous room packed with jostled, shouting members of the expedition.

"Teams One and Two, secure the immediate area." Sumner shouted over the radio. "Everyone else, find a open space and park it until instructed otherwise."

I didn't quite know how but I somehow ended up beside Sheppard again. I noticed that his laid back, slouching manner had changed significantly. He gripped his P-90 harder, his eyes sweeping the area, and I remembered that this was how he had looked in Afghanistan; it wasn't a pleasant memory.

Our team started climbing a flight of shallow stairs and suddenly the twilight of the room was broken by lights springing to life.


	3. Chapter 3

"Who's doing that?" Dr. Weir sounded a little nervous.

"Not me," Sheppard muttered, and I decided I'd have to ask him about that later.

Colonel Sumner scowled around the room like he was looking for the culprit, then reached for his radio. "Security teams, any alien contact?"

"Negative, sir."

"Team Four negative, sir."

"The lights are coming on by themselves," apparently John had lost none of his talent for stating the obvious.

I turned when we reached the top of the stairs and looked back over the glimmering StarGate, and saw that the last of the expedition members had arrived.

"That's everyone," Sumner sounded a little reluctant.

Dr. Weir tapped her radio, "General O'Neill, Atlantis base offers greetings form the Pegasus Galaxy. You may cut power to the gate."

A small object rolled through the event horizon; a bottle of Champagne. The gate deactivated, and for the first time it really hit me; that had been our only link to home, now we were trapped in another galaxy with no way home. I looked over a John, but he didn't seem particularly bothered; I knew better, underneath that calm exterior I knew he was just a s scared as the rest of us. Somehow, that made me feel better.

John wandered over to something that looked like a computer interface; it was covered with, was that plastic? Unbelievable! The console flickered to life as if sensing his presence. He put his hands up defensively. "I didn't touch anything."

"Relax, Major. It's like the entire complex is sensing our presence and coming to life."

I nudged John in the ribs, "Why are you so nervous about touching this stuff?"

He gave me a crooked smile. "I had couple of run-ins with that chair thing."

"I thought Beckett fired the drone?"

"Yeah, at me."

"Oh." Apparently being chased by one of the damned drones had a very high mortality rate.

Dr. McKay bustled over to the console talking far too fast. "This has got to be the control room. This is obviously their version of a DHD."

"Of course," I said at the same time Sheppard said, "Oh, obviously." McKay glared at both of us, but didn't stop babbling.

"This area could be power control systems, possibly a computer interface-"

Dr. Weir cleared her throat. "Hey, hey. Why don't you find out?"

McKay stopped with his mouth half open, he looked so petulant at being interrupted that I started coughing to hide my laughter.

"Right," McKay huffed, and stared scurrying around the room tapping buttons and uncovering consoles.

The radios crackled. "Dr. Weir, Colonel Sumner here. Could you come down and meet me, please? We're three levels down from you."

"Right away," Dr. Weir nodded at Sheppard and me, obviously wanting us to come. I was strangely glad to stay with John, I tried to tell myself it was just because I knew him, but it was more than that.

We met Colonel Sumner in one of the hallways. He was in his element here, plenty of room, a good chance that there were hostile aliens he could blow up and plenty of people to order around. "We've only been able to secure a fraction of the place. It's huge." he spoke to Dr. Weir, completely ignoring us.

"So it might really be the lost city of Atlantis?"

"I'd say that's a good bet."

We turned the corner and saw a window looking out on...what exactly?

"Oh my God!" Dr. Weir sounded completely shocked.

Then it hit me. "Is that-"

"We're underwater," Dr. Weir confirmed.

"I'd say we're under several hundred feet of ocean. If we can't dial out, this could be a problem." Colonel Sumner didn't sound particularly concerned.

"No kidding," I muttered.

"Colonel, Dr. Weir-" McKay didn't get much farther in his sentence.

"We're underwater!" Sheppard interrupted.

"Yes, I was just coming to tell you. Fortunately, there's some sort of force field holding back the wa...water. Oh, that is impressive, isn't it?"

That was one way of putting it, personally, force field or not, the thought of being under so much water made me feel like I was being crushed.

"Uh, Dr. Beckett has found something you should, uh, see," McKay continued.

Dr. Beckett was a couple levels up in a fairly large room, and he wasn't alone. A hologram of a woman flickered on a platform, her voice echoing as a recorded message played.

"...In the hope of spreading new life in a galaxy where there appeared to be none. Soon, the new life grew and prospered."

"It's a hologram. The recording loops. This is my second time through," Beckett glanced nervously at Colonel Sumner.

Sumner nodded, "What have we missed?"

"Not much," Beckett relaxed and went back to watching the hologram.

"...Exchange knowledge and time, a thousand worlds bore the fruit of life in this form. Then one day, our people set foot upon a dark world where a terrible enemy slept." I instinctively dropped a hand to my gun.

"That doesn't sound so good," I whispered to John.

He frowned. "Ah, they're probably long gone," he didn't sound convinced.

"Never before had we encountered beings with powers that rivaled our own. In our overconfidence, we were unprepared and enemy fed upon the defenseless human worlds like a great scourge, until finally, only Atlantis remained. This city's great shield was powerful enough to withstand their terrible weapons but here we were besieged for many years. In an effort to save the last of our kind we submerged our great city into the ocean. The Atlantis stargate was the one and only link back to Earth from this galaxy, and those who remained used it to return to that world that was once home. There, the last survivors of Atlantis lived out the remainder of their lives. This city was left to slumber, in the hope that our kind would one day return.  
"Huh." As usual John pretty much summed it up.  
"So the story of Atlantis is true, a great city that sank in the ocean," McKay sounded slightly dejected.  
"It just didn't happen on Earth." Beckett stepped away from the platform and the hologram flickered out of existence.  
"Well, the Ancient Greeks must have heard it from one of the surviving Ancients," McKay continued self importantly.  
"I don't like the fact they got their asses kicked," Sumner glared at the air where the hologram had been.  
"Let's see it again from the beginning," Beckett stepped back toward the platform again.

"Stop, turn it off," McKay ordered. "Power levels throughout the city are dropping like a stone."

"What does that mean?"

"That if we don't stop everything we're doing right now, we are dead."

**AN. Okay people, here's the deal, REVIEW! Please? Come on, don't make me beg. Oh, Alright. Please, please, please, please, please, Review!**


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